Monday, February 2, 2009

Johannes Goransson @ Exoskeleton: 'What makes this novel very interesting in this context is that it seems to be written from the other direction - not a murder mystery that loses its narrative, but a narrative-less cinematic body-fantasia in search of a narrative.'

Brandon Hobson @ Clusterflock: 'The music somehow made me want to lie down on the floor and sliver. I’m not sure why. When I told my wife this she asked if I’d taken my medication (which I had).'

I just got Shane Jones's LIGHT BOXES in the mail. It is beautiful. You should order it. I am really excited to read it again in its final form. Since I preordered, mine came with a copy of Shane's MLP chapbook 'Black Kids in Lemon Trees,' which I already have as an MLP subscriber. Forward me a receipt for ordering the book from today or later and I will give you my second copy of it.

Brian Evenson's LAST DAYS is out now from Underland Press. I will be posting a full review of this probably later this week, but as anyone who has touched Evenson's ink likely already knows: this is a book for owning, reading, rereading, eating, touching. I can't think of an author who has influenced me more, honestly. I recommend this book as highly as any other book he has written: they are all vital.

Last night I read his story 'The Adjudicator' in the new issue of Conjunctions about a hairless man living in a house after a great conflagration, who is then asked to 'adjudicate' a man who looks, he believes, exactly like him. Evenson's corridors of narrative, always as if chiseled out of something that has existed forever, somehow seem both speaking to you and speaking secondly inside you at the same time, each saying slightly different things that then interweave in your brain meat and then, in the collision, form the narrative. How Evenson is able to portray such complex moods in lines that seem so simple, and yet so timelessly phrased, in their pronunciation, is one of the great many magicks he possesses.

This Friday, doing a small pre-NYC-book-release-party book release party in Atlanta. Friday 8:30 @ Kavarna in Decatur. My boy Jamie Iredell is on the mic, as are a couple bands. I don't think more than a couple Atlantans read this blog, but oh well, it's a mention.

I watched Roy Andersson's YOU THE LIVING the other night. I didn't love it as much as SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR, which is one of my all time favorites, though it was not too far behind, and almost like a sequel.

I love the use of the swastikas on the table after the cloth is removed in this scene, a perfect encryption that somehow gave me goosebumps when I noticed, even despite the laughter:

I kind of am enjoying this year thoroughly thus far.

"19: OS OS OS IS SI, Day of Speak Only in Hymn, for yes, the song is joyous, and in our zoning we yes do indeed enjoy the song."

All of this stuff is so great, I mean, stuff I needed to know. Thanks Blake for saying my name(s) and for pointing out all this other stuff. I liked that Neely piece so much it kind of reaffirmed certain things. I'm getting things, everythings, it's so great. Thanks Ken too.

That video shoots a beanbag square into my inner child's face. I smile. Have a good reading Friday, all the people who could take my shift got fired. Damn-it-all. I'll quote a line from EVER to customers when they ask me a question about anything. The questions won't matter.